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Otto Lang immediately replaced Friedl Pfeifer as executive director of Sun Valley’s Ski School. With Pfeifer’s energy now devoted solely to the development of Aspen, it fell to Lang to defend Hannes Schneider and the Arlberg technique against France’s increasingly sharp criticisms. During the 1947–48 ski season, Lang balanced his duties by producing a film for Hollywood mogul Darryl Zanuck and serving as Sun Valley’s goodwill ambassador at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, the first Games held since 1936.
Faced with the formidable task of replacing Pfeifer with someone of equal stature, Lang turned to his mentor Schneider in North Conway, New Hampshire. True to his philosophy of encouraging his best instructors to advance themselves, Schneider recommended Toni Matt.
Trained from youth in St. Anton, Matt fled to the United States in 1938, quickly rising to prominence as one of America’s leading ski racers. Twice national downhill champion and combined U.S. champion in 1941, Matt is best remembered for his daring schuss of the 4,300‑foot Headwall at Tuckerman’s Ravine on Mount Washington, New Hampshire, a feat that became legendary in ski lore. He also served in the U.S. 10th Mountain Division, alongside several of Sun Valley’s most notable instructors.
Accepting the position of Ski School Director, Matt ran the school in the classic Schneider tradition, allowing Lang to focus his energies on representing Sun Valley on the world stage.
Sun Valley 1948 Ski School and their Autographs / Lang and Allais Pictured Center Front.
Toni Matt on the north wall of Mount Washington
Toni Matt / Sun Valley's 4th Ski School Director
Toni Matt in Sun Valley
Gretchen Fresher
Henri Oreiller / The Acrobat
The 1948 Winter Olympic Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland, were the first held since 1936, and they marked a turning point in alpine skiing. France’s racers, employing Émile Allais’ revolutionary techniques, dominated the men’s events, capturing three of the six Alpine medals. Their star, Henri Oreiller, won two golds and a bronze, instantly drawing the world’s attention to France’s new style of skiing and fueling a global addiction to the sport.
Sun Valley’s Arlberg tradition also made its mark in St. Moritz. Gretchen Fraser, coached during her career by Sun Valley instructors Sigi Engl, Otto Lang, and Friedl Pfeifer, won America’s first alpine medals, taking gold in the slalom and silver in the combined. The United States also celebrated a promising performance from 15‑year‑old Andrea Mead, whose racing skills hinted at the future of American skiing.
While in St. Moritz, Otto Lang briefly met Allais and was immediately struck by the Frenchman’s charisma. Both Lang and Schneider respected Allais’ “gentleman qualities,” yet they viewed the French Technique as lacking the fundamental foundations necessary for effective instruction. As the world press began to frame this rivalry as skiing’s first great schism, Lang returned to Sun Valley, only to discover that all was not well at home.
While the ski school under Toni Matt functioned well, his chances of returning for a second season diminished after an adulterous affair became public. Faced with the daunting task of once again replacing Friedl Pfeifer with someone of equal stature, and countering the growing influence of the “French Technique” in American resorts, Otto Lang devised a controversial solution. He would hire Émile Allais and turn the eyes of the skiing world back to Sun Valley.
With Allais teaching in Sun Valley during the 1948–49 season, the long‑anticipated confrontation between the two contrasting turn styles—lingering unresolved since 1936—finally came to the fore. Of his emerging method, Allais declared: “My technique is just right for this country. It is loose and free, just like the spirit of you Americans.” His stateside unveiling generated immense publicity, with his image gracing the winter covers of both Ski and Life magazines.
Meanwhile, through the refinements of Pfeifer and Lang, Hannes Schneider’s Arlberg Technique had been streamlined, placing far less emphasis on stemming and securing a more parallel demeanor. This evolution narrowed the gap between the Arlberg and the French approach. Yet where the teaching styles diverged, the Arlberg method proved superior, preserving its foundations while adapting to modern demands.
Allies and Lang skiing in Sun Valley / Below the Ruade
For the beginner, the “French Technique” proved disastrous. By discarding the stem turn as the foundation of learning and eliminating the snowplow, Émile Allais left novice skiers with little basis for acquiring balance. For advanced skiers, Allais’ celebrated “Ruade”, lifting the tails of both parallel skis off the snow to initiate a mid‑air turn, lacked the flowing coherence and efficiency of the Arlberg method. Watching his instructors practice the Ruade, Otto Lang quipped: “They reminded me of a flock of bunny rabbits hopping around and frolicking in the snow.”
I interviewed Lang in the early 1990s during one of his visits to Sun Valley, and his attention to detail was astonishing. His pivotal role in the history of alpine skiing nearly equaled that of his mentor, Hannes Schneider.
In later years, Allais himself acknowledged the frailties of his technique. While skiing with Lang near Flaine, France, Lang called out: “Hey, Émile, what about the Ruade?” Allais laughed and replied: “Extinct as the dodo bird.”
The close of the 1948–49 season marked Allais’s departure from Sun Valley to head the ski school at Alex Cushing’s newly developed Squaw Valley in California. Although the Ruade never fulfilled its promise of supplanting the Arlberg, Allais, like Schneider, Averell Harriman, Pfeifer, and Lang, proved himself a true renaissance man of skiing. He coached the American men’s team at the 1952 Olympics, lifting them from the bottom ranks to a fifth‑place finish in the downhill and sixth in the giant slalom. He trained dozens of the world’s top racers and pioneered the first non‑wood ski used in international competition.
Returning to Europe, Allais became France’s technical director for ski resort development, shaping the infrastructure of modern alpine tourism. He died in October 2012 at the age of 100, remembered, alongside Jean‑Claude Killy, as one of France’s greatest alpine skiers.
In 1949, Sun Valley’s Ski School welcomed Leif Odmark of Sweden, hired by Otto Lang and Sep Froehlich. Though Odmark’s early training focused exclusively on the Nordic disciplines, he quickly mastered the Alpine aspects of the sport and went on to instruct both Alpine and Nordic (Telemark Downhill) for an impressive 22 years. In 1951, he was selected to coach the American Nordic Olympic Team for the 1952 Games in Oslo, Norway. Later, in 1970, Odmark opened Sun Valley’s Nordic Center, where both cross‑country and Telemark skiing were taught. He also acquired a guide’s license for the Pioneer Mountains, occasionally leading tours to Pioneer Cabin from the late 1970s into the early 1980s. I had the privilege of interviewing Leif in 1999, his passion for both Nordic and Alpine traditions still evident decades after his pioneering work.
Alongside Odmark, Bill Butterfield, an American ski instructor, joined the Alpine crew. Butterfield grew up skiing at Big Bromley, Vermont, where he learned the essentials of the sport under the guidance of his mentor, Fred Iselin. Certified at just 16 years old, Butterfield held the distinction of being the youngest licensed ski teacher in the East. After a brief stint in the Navy, he traveled to Sun Valley in 1948, soon earning a position with the Otto Lang–Émile Allais Ski School. In the early 1950s, he expanded his responsibilities internationally, directing the ski school at Coronet Peak, New Zealand, during the summer months. Butterfield’s organizational skills and natural leadership made him the ideal choice for assistant director during the Sigi Engl era, where he thrived as the indispensable “man behind the scenes.”
Leif Odmark
Bill Butterfield
The alpine touring school, Sun Valley’s early experiment in ski mountaineering, entered a rapid decline in the late 1940s as chairlifts and the swift development of ski resorts across the United States, Canada, Europe, South America, Australia, and New Zealand transformed the character of the sport. Why climb a mountain when you could ride up it?
The winter of 1948–49 brought further misfortune when heavy snows unleashed devastating avalanches that destroyed the Owl Creek Cabin. Though rebuilt the following summer, its renewed presence did little to revive interest in what was quickly becoming a fading pastime.
After the war, Andy Hennig and Victor Gottschalk continued guiding guests through Sun Valley’s vast lift‑less surroundings. Yet the rise of efficient transportation up Bald Mountain, coupled with dramatic improvements in alpine skiing techniques, marked the beginning of the end for the touring school.
Only one brief resurgence occurred in the summers of 1947 and 1948, when Averell Harriman and Hennig attempted to breathe new life into the sport. In 1947, after touring the striking snow‑filled bowls of Boulder Basin, one of Hennig’s favored touring sites, Harriman directed Pat Rogers, Sun Valley’s general manager, to promote spring and summer skiing. Within a week, two jeeps were available to shuttle skiers into Boulder Basin, and for a few weeks, summer alpine touring enjoyed a modest revival.
On July 4, 1948, slalom races were even staged on Boulder Basin’s slopes, covered by Seattle Movietone News. To encourage this reincarnation further, Hennig, again at Harriman’s request, authored Sun Valley Ski Guide in 1948, the resort’s first and most comprehensive alpine touring manual. The book detailed Sun Valley’s many regions for both alpine skiing and alpine touring, echoing the popular guidebooks of the Alps. Harriman hoped such a publication might rekindle interest in touring, but the momentum never returned.
Boulder Basin / July 4th 2017
Boulder Basin / July 28th, 1948
Sep Froehlich and Andy Hennig reading "Sun Valley Ski Guide" 1948
The winter of 1952 marked the unofficial end of Sun Valley’s alpine touring school. Avalanches cascading down Baldy’s Lookout Bowl claimed the life of Victor Gottschalk, while slides off Bromaghin Peak destroyed the Owl Creek Cabin, eulogizing a dire close to a once‑historic institution.
Though Florian Haemmerle, with his “old gentleman’s club,” and Andy Hennig, with his “seasoned ambitious clients,” occasionally continued alpine touring after 1952, these efforts carried on without the blessing of the Sun Valley Company. Yet Hennig never abandoned his dream of developing Sun Valley’s vast mountainous surroundings into a touring center equal to those of Europe.
Together with Fred Iselin (director of Aspen’s Ski School) and Willy Helming (Sun Valley’s 10th Mountain veteran), and with occasional contributions from Leif Odmark and Alf Engen, Hennig made numerous descents across the Pioneer, Lost River, Boulder, Smoky, White Cloud, and Sawtooth ranges from the late 1940s through the early 1970s. This partnership culminated in the publication of the Sawtooth Mountain Guide in the early 1950s, a lasting testament to their vision of alpine touring in Idaho’s rugged peaks.
Look Out Bowl Bald Mountain 1952 Avalanche
1953 Sun Valley Ski School tribute to Victor Gottschalk
While Sun Valley’s place in history may have been shaped by the circumstances of its era, etched in the footsteps of its pioneering founders, an everlasting mountain spirit of resourcefulness endured. This spirit transcended those historic times, carrying forward a uniqueness and expertise found only in Sun Valley, where innovation and tradition continue to meet upon its slopes.
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